Four-goal win is not enough for Rowett

BLUES boss Gary Rowett was frustrated with Birmingham City’s display against Rotherham on Tuesday night despite the fact they scored four goals for the first time in nearly a year.

Blues took the lead but were pegged back at 1-1 and even with a 3-1 lead early in the second half invited Rotherham into the game by conceding a sloppy second goal in the 4-2 win.

They closed it out with a late penalty but, even though his team rose a place to fifth in the table, the Birmingham manager was less than impressed.

“I have got to be careful what I say because I don’t think it’s fair on the opposition manager if I start saying we didn’t play very well and we’ve won 4-2 – I think that would be a little bit disrespectful.

“I thought we played well in some spells, particularly in an attacking point of view – but I was really disappointed with some aspects of our game.

“We went 1-0 up and I felt at that point we should be really compact defensively and not let them through us but we just allowed spaces to develop easily.

“When it’s an evening when you are creating good chances then occasionally the strikers and wingers get a little bit greedy and start to edge a little bit further up the pitch – and perhaps not get back in as quick as they can.

“I felt as a team at times we didn’t defend as well as we would have liked to.

“We scored goals at the right times.

“We allowed them to have chances and maybe on another night a different team – or even Rotherham – would come back and make that 3-3.

“Fortunately we came back to give us that little buffer on the scoreline.

“But we had a 10-15 minute spell in the second half where we just needed a little bit of composure but it was that classic ‘You have just conceded, it’s 3-2 and everyone went edgy’.

“Even the crowd went edgy and were getting frustrated and rightly so because we were just lashing balls forward, not taking any care and not showing any composure.”